Thailand's crisis is about to get even uglier

[webfact]

Thailand's Crisis Is About to Get Even Uglier
By Bruce Einhorn

BANGKOK: -- Thailand’s tourist officials are paid to be optimists. That’s why, despite the political turmoil plaguing the kingdom, they’re hard at work promoting the Land of Smiles as a place for tourists to celebrate Chinese New Year at the end of January. Last year, 100,000 tourists from China visited during the New Year festivities.

With China now such a major source of revenue for hotel operators and shop owners in Bangkok, Phuket, and other Thai destinations, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is hyping what it calls in a statement the “spectacular highlights” of events designed to emphasize “the strong tie between the Thai and Chinese communities.”

Not strong enough to withstand the latest escalation of Thailand’s power struggle, though. The number of Chinese tourists visiting the resort island of Phuket will plunge 40 percent in January, the president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, Piyaman Tejapaibul, told reporters yesterday. The picture is even worse for Bangkok; the capital will likely suffer a 70 percent fall in Chinese tourist arrivals this month, China’s People’s Daily reported today.

Even those estimates might turn out to be overly bullish, as antigovernment protesters look to expand their demonstrations next week.

Full story: sweek.com/articles/2014-01-10/thailands-crisis-is-about-to-get-even-uglier

-- BloombergBusinessweek 2014-01-11

[Costas2008]

There will be plenty of fire crackers going off for the next 2 months.

Chinese and others can enjoy the show

[Jay Sata]

Tourists are like birds...they fly from place to place but always return home.

Thailand has enjoyed tourism just like Spain and Greece who thought it would never end.

The new playground is always on the horizon.

[jaltsc]

"Thailand's Crisis Is About to Get Even Uglier"

How can it get uglier?... you ask. How about government shutdowns, a military coup, and now 100,000 idiots driving on the wrong side of the road taking photographs of anything which comes into view.

[ramrod711]

Thailand’s tourist officials are paid to be optimists.

What a fool i am, i always believed everything TAT wrote about tsunamis, floods and riots being good for tourism.

[focus27]

The link to the article doesn't work; here it is in full:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-10/thailands-crisis-is-about-to-get-even-uglier

Another misleading fear-based title with little content. Being Bloomberg, their advice is that some stocks are now cheap: get ready, SET, go!!

[MarkCyr]

Thai tourism and tour companies will bounce back. They always do. Even when they shut down the airports and the military were everywhere, the effects to tourism weren't long lasting.

But the damage done to the day-to-day employees who rely on tourism, even for short-term shutdowns, can be devastating. A lot of families in Thailand are living on a shoestring, and even those who aren't typically are not the best at planning ahead for this kind of thing. So I hope this blows over soon!

[Yunla]

Tourists are like birds...they fly from place to place but always return home.

Thailand has enjoyed tourism just like Spain and Greece who thought it would never end.

The new playground is always on the horizon.

Also Mexico, which now suffers from a violence-related image problem. Mexico is different, and lost its Acapulco etc. tourism dream spots for other reasons and a long time ago, but the problems today are that many family tourists who may once have made the long journey from Europe to Mexico are reading the reports of the drug-wars and the horror stories we see on the News, and Mexico is entirely off the menu for much of this big-spending family-tourist group.

Thailand is not the same of course, but the same "percieved danger" factor is certainly a current problem for Thailand with the traditional family-holiday market, who usually spend big in short-time and are generally 'model' tourists. Younger solo tourists will travel anywhere regardless, they are more casual about choices and tend to follow their feet rather than the News. But family-tourism will always pick the safest location, where they can relax and feel safe to mingle with the local authentic culture alongside their children.

[noitom]

The Chinese Thais have managed to keep the protests out of their area of Bangkok. You must wonder how they manage to do that? A little deal making?

[geriatrickid]

The Chinese Thais have managed to keep the protests out of their area of Bangkok. You must wonder how they manage to do that? A little deal making?

No. A private security force that has proven effective.

[DMG333]

Some could be empiric once they see the potential returns they could lose. That's fallacious to foresee drearisome fall of Thailand.

[FangFerang]

Generalizations are valid thinking when substantiated. Racism isn't the issue. The Chinese never tip, not part of their culture, and are much louder than Thai people because in China people speak loudly, whereas speaking loudly in Thailand is considered rude (sometimes to the point that I cannot hear them). They all isn't the same. The problem the article addresses is lost money from the political deadlock, the posters took the ball and kicked it...

[BanTamo]

Even the Hong Kong Chinese have issues with the behavior, etiquette, and personal hygiene of visiting PRC nationals, whom they refer to as "locusts."

Despite the torrent of cash these locusts represent, many Hong Kong people are fed up and want entry restrictions tightened.

But I can't see how that sentiment would constitute racism per se. The character flaws of that group of tourists are well documented, even by themselves.

[falangadang]

"The number of Chinese tourists visiting the resort island of Phuket will plunge 40 percent in January, the president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, Piyaman Tejapaibul, told reporters yesterday."

Well I suppose that means a jump in prices for everything in Phuket during January once the "customers down - prices up" policy is applied!

[evercurious]

@ Jay Sata

Tourists are like birds........

Thailand has enjoyed tourism just like Spain and Greece who thought it would never end.

The new playground is always on the horizon.

Very good point and one which perhaps few ex-pats have been concerned with till now - things could shake up pretty radically after the playing out of current political currents, not that long termers would automatically leave, but things could lose a lot of their 'feelgood' factor here

[SeaVisionBurma]

Locking this thread for a clean up.

Seems there are a number of you who need to re-read the forum rules.

In using Thai Visa I agree:

1) To respect fellow members.

3) Not to post in a manner that is vulgar, obscene or profane.

4) Not to flame fellow members.Flaming will not be tolerated. 'Flaming' is defined as posting or responding to a message in a way clearly intended to incite useless arguments, to launch personal attacks, to insult, or to be hateful towards other members. This includes useless criticism, name-calling, swearing and any other comments meant to incite anger.
5) Not to post inflammatory messages on the forum, or attempt to disrupt discussions to upset its participants, or trolling.Trolling can be defined as the act of purposefully antagonizing other people on the internet by posting controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

7) Not to post slurs or degrading comments directed towards any group on the basis of race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

8) Not to post extremely negative views of Thailand or derogatory comments directed towards all Thais.

Take your pick from the above